{"id":47262,"date":"2026-03-19T13:07:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47262"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:07:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:07:49","slug":"aipac-flops-in-illinois-but-record-election-spending-called-a-full-spectrum-disaster-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/aipac-flops-in-illinois-but-record-election-spending-called-a-full-spectrum-disaster-for-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"AIPAC Flops in Illinois, But Record Election Spending Called a \u2018Full-Spectrum Disaster for Democracy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voters arrive to cast their ballots inside the new Chicago Board of Elections on March 17, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Jacek Boczarski\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to kick AIPAC and other billionaire-funded super PACs out of Democratic primaries.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar 18, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee failed on Tuesday to secure wins in the two Illinois US House<\/a> primaries it invested the most money in, the latest electoral flop<\/a> for the pro-Israel lobbying organization whose brand has become increasingly noxious to Democratic voters amid Israel\u2019s genocidal assault on Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Illinois\u2019 7th and 9th Congressional Districts, AIPAC<\/a> spent millions backing Chicago treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who finished second, and Democratic State Sen. Laura Fine, who finished third. In the latter race, AIPAC<\/a> pivoted from initially attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss\u2014who ultimately won\u2014to concentrate on defeating Justice Democrats-backed Kat Abughazaleh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"'AIPAC<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018AIPAC Getting Desperate\u2019: Pro-Israel Super PAC Tries to Splinter Left Vote in Illinois House Primary<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"US-IRAN-ISRAEL-WAR-DEMONSTRATION\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018People Are Loving What\u2019s Happening,\u2019 Trump Claims While Massacring Iranian Children as US Oil Prices and Unemployment Spike<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AIPAC, which faced backlash for trying to conceal<\/a> its spending in the Illinois contests using shell<\/a> organizations, tried to spin<\/a> the 9th Congressional District results as a win, despite spending more against Biss than against Abughazaleh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThough Kat narrowly lost this race, we are proud to have backed this campaign that helped ensure the people of IL-09 would not be represented by another AIPAC shill,\u201d Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said in a statement. \u201cThis outcome is a massive loss for AIPAC as they lose more and more influence within the Democratic Party<\/a>. No amount of shell PACs or covert funding can hide their toxicity from Democratic voters, their monopoly over this party\u2019s agenda is coming to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two AIPAC-backed candidates did prevail Tuesday: Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller in the 2nd Congressional District and former Rep. Melissa Bean in the 8th Congressional District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIPAC\u2019s mixed results came amid broad alarm over outside spending that flooded Tuesday\u2019s midterm primary elections in Illinois, driven by pro-Israel, crypto, and AI special interest groups. Overall, more than $92 million<\/a> was spent on campaign ads in Tuesday\u2019s contests in Illinois, a state record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we can safely say that almost $100 million spent in a handful of primaries is a full-spectrum disaster for democracy<\/a>,\u201d wrote<\/a> David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, which called<\/a> the torrent of spending \u201ca corruption<\/a> of democracy that is relatively unprecedented in modern elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Journal reported<\/a> Tuesday that when the national midterm cycle is over, \u201cthe price tag for the Illinois primary will be an important footnote in what\u2019s projected to be the most expensive midterm election ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe nonpartisan research firm AdImpact estimates that more than $10.8 billion will be spent on ads alone this cycle,\u201d the Journal observed. \u201cEven as the competitive map gets smaller, the price tag keeps increasing as more outside deep-pocketed groups invest more in primaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Super PACs<\/a>, entities that can spend unlimited sums boosting their preferred candidates, pumped roughly $31 million<\/a> into Tuesday\u2019s US House primaries in Illinois. AIPAC-linked organizations accounted for around $22 million<\/a> of the total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to kick AIPAC and other billionaire-funded super PACs out of Democratic primaries,\u201d US Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders<\/a>\u00a0(I-Vt.)\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0ahead of Tuesday\u2019s races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters arrive to cast their ballots inside the new Chicago Board of Elections on March 17, 2026. \u00a0(Photo by Jacek Boczarski\/Anadolu via Getty Images) \u201cIt\u2019s time to kick AIPAC and other billionaire-funded super PACs out of Democratic primaries.\u201d Jake Johnson Mar 18, 2026 (CommonDreams.org) The American Israel Public Affairs Committee… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47262"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47263,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47262\/revisions\/47263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}